Freedom of the Press–When You Own One

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”– A.J. Liebling

Rob Davis of VoiceofSanDiego.orgreports on the new owner of his local daily:

Doug Manchester, the new owner and publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, wants his new media outlet to be a booster.

The newspaper’s new CEO, John Lynch, made that clear in an interview with me after Manchester bought the paper November 17. Lynch said he wanted the newspaper’s sports page to advocate for a new Chargers stadium and call out opponents as obstructionists. He’s since revisited those remarks, telling a Union-Tribune reporter that he was “acutely aware” of the importance of an independent newsroom.

Lynch’s original comments are in line with how many media owners have viewed local sports, as Neil deMause reported inExtra! in 1999. And as FAIR noted in 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was editorially opposed to building a new baseball stadium–that is, until their parent company got a stake in the team. Why go to the trouble of owning a newspaper if you don’t use it to advance other business interests?

Activism Director and and Co-producer of CounterSpinPeter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR's magazine Extra! and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR's syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed. Follow Peter on Twitter at @peterfhart.

The corporate media is always selling something to one audience or another. The networks sell their newsreaders to the public, the newsreaders sell the corporate interests to the public. Above all else is sold the idea that there is no alternative, TINA.

Their narrow measure of success is not in public service but in private profit at public expense.